The general ledger reflects a permanent summary of all your supporting journals, such as the sales and cash receipts journal and the cash disbursements journal. Closing your books and maintaining your general ledger should be one of your top priorities. It terms of your company's books, it all boils down to the general ledger. This accounting-must functions as a permanent summary of all your supporting journals, such as the sales and cash receipts journal and the cash disbursements journal. In addition, your financial statements are built from the general ledger. Tools for keeping an accurate general ledgerFor each account title shown on your sales and cash receipts journal columns and your cash disbursements journal columns, there is a general ledger account. There are also separate general ledger accounts for miscellaneous items that don't have their own column in the journals, but are entered in a "miscellaneous" column. For example, Cash, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Sales, Purchases, Telephone Expense and Owner's Equity are all examples of general ledger accounts. Your accounting software will reserve space in the general ledger for each general ledger account. The individual entries in the general ledger are always from the total columns of your supporting journals. When all journal entries are posted, you can arrive at the ending balance for each account. The sum of all general ledger debit balances should always equal the sum of all general ledger credit balances. Suggested general ledger accounts We've provided a list of common general ledger accounts many businesses find useful. Depending on your type of business, you will use many, but probably not all, of these account names. When you set up your accounting software, you'll want to include all applicable accounts. On your financial statements, they should generally be placed in the order shown. Balance sheet accounts Assets:
Liabilities:
Capital Accounts:
Income statement accountsIncome:
Expenses:
Tip Have you been running your business for a while and are just now trying to take over some of the basic bookkeeping? If you've had financial statements prepared by an accountant in the past, look at last year's balance sheet and income statement. You can get started by setting up general ledger accounts for each account title shown on those financial statements. Closing the books at the end of an accounting periodWhen you reach the end of an accounting period, hold off a second before pouring the bubbly: you still need to "close the books." At a minimum, you will close your books annually because you have to file an income tax return every year. If you are having financial statements prepared, you will want them done at least annually. However, annual financial statements may not be enough to help you keep tabs on your business. You may want financial statements monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly. Even if you are not having financial statements prepared, you may want to close your books monthly. Sending out customer statements, paying your suppliers, reconciling your bank statement, and submitting sales tax reports to the state are probably some of the tasks you need to do every month. You may find it easier to do these if you close your books. How to close your books After you finish entering the day-to-day transactions in your journals, you are ready to close the books for the period. A step-by-step description of how to close the books follows. How many of the steps you do yourself depends on how much of the accounting you want to do, and how much you want to pay your accountant to do. Of course, using the proper accounting software will consolidate many of these steps.
Preparing trial balance sheets The trial balance is a worksheet on which you list all your general ledger accounts and their debit or credit balance. The total debits must equal the total credits. If they don't equal, you know you have an error that must be tracked down. When closing out your books at the end of an accounting period, you will prepare three trial balances:
Example You're preparing to close the books for the year ended December 31, 2011. You post totals from the journals to the general ledger, and foot the general ledger accounts. Then you prepare the following preliminary trial balance, using the balances from your general ledger accounts. Beta Service Company Preliminary Trial Balance December 31, 2010 |